The Best 10 Tablets for Educators.

 The world is going mobile and so teaching and learning. We no longer talk about the use of only " traditional technology " ( computers and laptops ) in education for this is taken for granted but there emerged a growing need for the use of smart mobile technology. The majority of students now use a mobile device of some sort. Stats show that 95 of k-12 students in the United States own a phone.In fact these numbers are not surprising for we have a direct contact with students and we know exactly how much they use their phones and how excited they get to check out their phones the first thing when they have their break.

Educational Technology experts and curriculum designers are shifting the focus towards levelling this mobile technology into our classrooms. The move is still decent but promising. I said promising because we strated to see signs from the prominent world companies like Samsung and Apple trying to gear parts of their technology towards education. Just recently,  Apple has announced the release of iBooks 2 and iBooks Author that are considered to be the start of a digital textbook revolution.

With all these developments going on you might be asking yourself which mobile gadget I should get for myself to keep me  swimming  with the current. This is a hard decision to take alone especially that most of you are educators and not mobile technology experts. Anyway, there is always someone to hep. I am a teacher sharing with you the same pedagogical background but I am also a web2.0 and mobile technology  researcher. I have recently launched a website, The Best of Mobile Technology,  that is designed specifically to cover all the news, tips and reviews of the latest things in the mobile sphere.So being able to combine the technical part together with the educational background I think I know exactly how to help educators in their daily endeavour to implement technology into their work. In this regard I will be posting a series of articles to help teachers make their best decisions when it comes to what mobile gadgets to look for. Today's post is the first one of its kind to cover Tablets and will hopefully  help you answer the question which tablet to buy.

In   The Best of Mobile Technology,  I have a section there called Tablets Review where I make reviews of the best Tablets out there in the market and from this section I am selecting you this list of the best ten  tablets. Just keep in mind that for you to get a good tablet you need to always  look into features such as :  screen size ( 10.1 inches is the best ), The micro processor power in GHz the bigger the better, see if it is a dual core or quad core with the last one being the better, camera pixels, and video power that is calculated in pp, USB port, kind of operating system it runs....etc. I know the design is not a big deal for many people but yes you can also take it into account.

Here is a list of the best Tablets. Click on any title to read the entire review. I ordered the tabs according to their importance.

1- Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 ( This tab has just been released a couple of weeks ago in CSE in Las Vigas )

2- Asus Eee Pa Memo ( This is also just some weeks old )

3- Acer Iconia Tab A700 ( this is also just a couple of weeks old )

4- Apple's iPad 2

5- Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

6- Motorolla Xoom 

7- Blackberry Playbook

8- LG Optimus Tablet

9- Sony Tablet 

10- HTC Flyer Tablet

If you have suggestions or questions feel free to contact me and I will be glad to give a hand.

edmodo – social learning network for teachers

Edmodo is one of the greatest educational web tools and mobile apps that has ever been created. Some of you might have already heard of it but if not then this is your chance to learn about it.
Edmodo is a “free and secure social learning network for teachers, students and schools. It offers a real time platform to exchange ideas”. It is one of the best means of teacher-student communication. Edmodo allows students and teachers to stay connected via sending notes , replying to postes, and checking messages and upcoming events while being away from the classroom. It is now a universal application that is available both in web and mobile format. In short , Edomod is a micro- blogging platform adapted for educational purposes. It is built around closed group collaboration which means that only students with a password can access or join your group.

Some features of Edomodo

Here is a list of the mlain features that Edomodo offers to its users:

• It is free


• It is easy and simple to use


• It allows students and teachers to create a safe platform where to share knowledge


• It lets you set assignments, alerts and upcoming events online


• It allows you to send out files and add hypertext links

As i said earlier Edomod is also available for mobiles like iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Head over to iTunes app store to download Edmodo app , it is free.

How can i get started using Edomodo ?

Watch this short tutorial video to learn more about Edomodo

Applications of Edomodo in education

Educators can do several things with Edomodo. They can use it as a communicative tool with their students. They might create a closed group for all the students in a class and start sharing  homework, assignment, tasks, notes , messages and many more. They can also use it to create online resources for their learners , these resources can be anything like web pages , documents or power points.

Show Me - create and share interactive lessons mobile app

Show Me is a free mobile app. It allows its users to create interactive whiteboard-like lessons on your iPad. It also allows you to record voice-over whiteboard tutorials and share them online with your friends or colleagues. Show Me has already started a special page dedicated to support teachers via a gallery of lessons created by educators and each day there is  a Show Me of The Day that is added to this gallery.

Some features of Show Me

Here is a list of the main features that Show Me offers to its users :

• It is free


• It is simple to use


• It has an intuitive interface


• It lets you drop your images from your photo library to write over or around


• You can record your ShowMe instantly and with such an ease that you do not need any complicated menus


• You can easily switch between drawing and erasing and variuos other options


• It has a directory of great tutorials created by Show Me community.


• It is compatible with iPad and requires iOS 3.2 or later.

How can i get started using Show Me ?
Here is a short video tutorial for you to watch

ShowMe iPad App from San Kim on Vimeo.

Applications of Show Me in education

Educators can use Show Me app in various ways. They can use it to easily explain a range of topics from math to chemistry to music theory. They can also use it to Grade student work with commentary explaining the reasoning behind their performance. Show Me can also be use to deliver short and concise lessons to students or even get them to share  these lessons between each others.

Slice it – a mobile app to entertain your brain

Slice it is a free mobile gaming app. It is one of the best applications to include in the Educational Mobile Games i am gathering here. It is mainly a puzzle game where “you slice different figures into the same ratio or surface area”. I like this game for it increases the potential of brain calculations. This is one of the benefits of these educational games , they all enhance our students thinking powers and make them aware of some if not all of the analytical procedures at play when they are learning.

 

 

Slice it offers 180 different stages for players each with its due level of difficulty. It also support several languages including English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish.

Do you want to learn how to get started using this shape dividing game and learn how to start  slicing various shapes into equal sized pieces under a given condition , then watch this short tutorial video

 

 

That’s it about Slice it – a mobile app to entertain your brain.

Suduko Free – a brain trainer mobile game

Suduko Free is a free mobile gaming app. It is number one Sudoku app in Brain and Puzzle. This is the third post in a series of posts covering the topic Educational Mobile Games. The purpose behind this collection is to provide teachers with educational games to share with their students. It is summer holidays now and we want our learners to keep learning but this time learning is taking place  in different settings and without students being aware that they are learning and games are just there for you to achieve this goal. We have already talked about Math Workout and Words with friends and today we are introducing Suduko.
Suduko is a smart game that has four levels of difficulty: easy, medium, hard, and extreme i hate the extreme one because it drains my mind lol.

Some features of Suduko Free

Here is a list of the main services that Suduko Free offers to its users:

• It is completely free


• It has an intuitive interface


• It enhances your arithmetic skills


• It has the undo and redo options


• It always save the top scores and history


• It offers intelligent hints


• You can submit results and track progress online

How can i use Suduko Free ?

After you have downloaded Suduko Free into your mobile device then this is how it works. Remember most of the games if not all of them offer an introductory tutorial to drive you through the whole steps of the game and provide you with the necessary instructions on how to play it.

Sukudo Free is all about filling in the grid so that every row,column and 3 x 3 box contains digits 1 through 9.
That’s it about Suduko Free – a brain trainer mobile game.

lines – educational mobile puzzle game

Lines is another free mobile gaming app that our students can use in their mobile devices. If it happens that you landed on this page coming from a search engine or any other external link and are looking for mobile games for your device or your kids’ then i would suggest that you have a look at the Educational Mobile Games where i have a set of games that are free and very helpful for our learners together with some guidelines on how to use and select games for your students.
Lines is a classic computer game that is now available on mobile.It is a puzzle game where your goal is to clear the board by creating lines of 5 or more balls of the same color

Some features of Lines

Here is a list of the main features that Lines offer to its users:

• It is completely free


• It is easy to use


• It has a user-friendly interface


• It has four levels of difficulty


• It has (5 balls per line minimum) game and a beginner setting with four balls per line

what are the game rules ?

To get you acquainted with the rules of this game here is an excerpt taken from Lines main page:

The game starts with a 9 by 9 board with three balls chosen out of seven different colors. The player can move one ball per turn, and the player may only move a ball to a particular place if there is a path (linked set of vertical and horizontal empty cells) between the current position of the ball and the desired destination. The goal is to remove balls by forming lines (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) of at least five balls (four for beginner) of the same color. If the player does form such lines of at least five (four) balls of the same color, the balls in those lines disappear, and he gains one turn, i.e. he can move another ball. If not, three new balls are added, and the game continues until the board is full.

That’sit about Lines – Educational Mobile Puzzel Game.

Color Note – free note taking android app

Color note is a handy mobile app that is very useful for educators. It allows its users to easily and quickly take notes and edit them on the go. Color Note is mainly a notepad app that is compatible with Android 1.5 and earlier versions. If you have scraps of papers of meeting dates, to do lists and other reminders scattered all around on your desk then Color Note is your best free solution . It is very easy to use and above all free of charge , so why not give it a try and make your life much more easier. In fact it is one my best mobile note taking apps.

Some features of Color Note

Here are the main features that Color Note offers to its users:

• It is free to use


• It is very simple to use


• It has an intuitive interface


• It allows you to organize your notes by color


• It lets you add a sticky note widget


• You can lock and unlock your notes using a password


• You can add your reminders


• It lets you search your notes


• It includes To Do and shopping list


• You can share your notes via SMS, email, and Twitter

How can i get started using Color Note ?

To learn how to use this little handy tool i invite you to watch this short video tutorial

That’s it about Color Note – free note taking android app.